But these are the very much the exceptions. Weeks, even months, can go by with not one single thing going wrong – yes, even in the 1950s and 60s. And during those times, 99% of all broadcasting, everything in transmission control and continuity runs like clockwork.

It does so because it’s planned to the exact moment by a team of highly trained, highly talented people working long hours and producing copious amounts of paperwork – even now, in the days of ‘everything’ being on a computer.

The paperwork, and its computerised equivalents, still look something like these documents from 27 July 1968 – ATV London’s last Saturday on air. They are shared with everyone who could possibly need or want to know, since more information leads to better television.

Each day’s transmission schedule for each company is copied to the person responsible for co-ordination of the network at each company or branch. Here, someone in every TX studio in ITV on air that day, from Miss Leidan at STV to Geoffrey Lugg at ABC, gets a copy. The transmitter staff get a copy too; the Independent Television Authority, as the legal broadcaster of ITV at the time, gets one. The people at “ATC” (Associated Television Corporation, ATV London’s parent company) manning the lines from the transmission centre at Foley Street in Marylebone in London to the General Post Office television control suite in the nearby Museum Exchange, the chief engineer next door in the offices at Ogle Street and the duty officer at ITN all get a copy.

Elstree, the beating heart of ATV for nearly all of its life, gets 10 copies; Mr Summers gets a copy to edit down to share with the newspapers and the TVTimes; 24 copies go to head office on Great Cumberland Street, including one for Olive Hennessy, who must be prepared to look back when the inevitable letters from viewers – what was the advert I saw at 9pm on Saturday last? was the racing from Ripon or Richmond? who do I write to if I want to complain about the results of OpNox? – flood in over the next week.

Meanwhile, the output of the ITV companies trundles on, each advert, announcement and even the National Anthem at the end of the day timed to the very second.

The post Weekend routine appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

1963

1964

1969

The post They keep you in the picture appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

We were not deterred from asking more of her. On 24 November 1965, she told us that if we want a copy of Sound & Vision, we can buy the 78rpm with the code NIXA 15003.

She lied. NIXA 15003 was not the version of Sound & Vision ATV used. We told her so. On 16 December 1965, Olive bats gamely on anyway, politely telling us to get lost.

The post Dear Olive… appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post ATV starts the day appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Tele-snaps: Clocks appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

Stephanie de Sykes sings Odyssey, a track off Rain’s 1974 album that had the catchy title ‘Rain featuring Stephanie de Sykes’, over one of two films – one showing the rural nature of the Midlands region and one showing the industrial side. Best of all for ATV, this was free: the film was produced by a staff member whose hobby was helicopter rides and the album was on Bradley’s Records, a label owned by ATV Music.

The results are interesting – singing about how beautiful life is over shots of cooling towers and factory chimneys belching acrid smoke couldn’t not be – but also against both the spirit and the wording of the Independent Television Authority’s rules on formal station openings.

The IBA had inherited these rules from the General Post Office, who licensed each of the Authority’s transmitters and had seen itself as the regulator’s regulator, imposing a number of formal requirements and sometimes bizarre standards on the ITV companies that didn’t apply to the BBC. One of these was that a set instrumental piece of music had to be registered with the Authority and used without variation, except on Good Friday and over the Christmas holidays.

This piece obviously does not fit that pattern, and just as obviously was not registered for use. Eventually, the IBA’s Regional Officer in Birmingham happened to tune in one morning… and then song hit the fan, the IBA intervened, and order was restored.

The post Life is a Beautiful Book appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

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The beds in the above collection were designed to be used to replace the existing fanfare on ATV’s Zoom 2 ident. Here we’ve used the Zoom 2 vision with one of the cuts to see how that would look and sound…

Here’s the main ‘Midlands Montage’ theme in use on ATV on Monday 18 May 1981, with Stewart White doing the authority announcement on tape and Mike Prince doing the continuity.

The post Midlands Montage appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Shut That Door! appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Benny Hill appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post ATV London continuity appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

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The post Tele-snaps: frontcaps appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Tele-snaps: ITC and Gerry Anderson appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Tele-snaps: productions and presentations appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.

The post Tele-snaps: DX appeared first on THIS IS ATV NETWORK from Transdiffusion.